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Mainframe developer resume examples from 2025

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Updated March 26, 2025
6 min read
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How to write a mainframe developer resume

Craft a resume summary statement

A resume summary is your opening statement that highlights your strongest skills and top accomplishments. It is your chance to quickly let recruiters know who you are professionally - and why they should hire you for the mainframe developer role.

Step 1: Start with your current job title, or the one you aspire to. Are you a passionate manager? A skilled analyst? It's a good starting point.

Step 2: Next put your years of experience in mainframe developer-related roles.

Step 3: Now is the time to put your biggest accomplishment or something you are professionally proud of.

Step 4: Read over what you have written. It should be 2-4 sentences. Your goal is to summarize your experience, not recite your resume.

These four steps should give you a strong elevator pitch and land you some mainframe developer interviews.

Please upload your resume so Zippia’s job hunt AI can draft a summary statement for you.

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List the right project manager skills

Use your Skills section to show you have the knowledge and technical ability to do the job. Here is how to make the most of your skills section and make sure you have the right keywords:

  1. Look to the job listing. You often need to include the exact keywords from the job description. Take note of the skills listed for the job.
  2. Put all relevant hard and soft skills in your skills section.
  3. Be specific. If you are too broad, you may not be giving the best picture of your skills and leave the hiring manager uncertain of your abilities.
  4. Be up to date. Software names change and companies merge. Don't look out of touch by being careless.
  5. Be accurate. Spelling and even upper or lowercase can dramatically change meanings. Make sure you are correctly listing your skills.
These five steps should give you a strong elevator pitch and land you some mainframe developer interviews.

Here are example skills to include in your “Area of Expertise” on a mainframe developer resume:

  • DB2
  • JCL
  • CICS
  • SQL
  • VSAM
  • Java
  • MQ
  • Cobol II
  • Test Data
  • Application Development
  • Procs
  • Debugging
  • SPUFI
  • Test Cases
  • File-Aid
  • MVS
  • SDLC
  • FTP
  • Onsite
  • Endevor
  • IBM Mainframe
  • Test Results
  • Technical Specifications
  • Unix
  • SAS
  • UAT
  • Impact Analysis
  • Ims Db
  • Windows
  • CA7

Zippia’s AI can customize your resume for you.

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How to structure your work experience

Your employment history is arguably one of the most important parts of your resume. It shows you have experience and foundation in your field to successfully master the mainframe developer position. Here is how to most effectively structure your work experience:

  1. List your most recent experience first, followed by earlier roles in reverse chronological order. Employers care about your most recent experience the most.
  2. Start with your job title, company name, city, and state on the left. Align dates in month and year format on the right-hand side.
  3. Include only recent, relevant jobs.

How to write mainframe developer experience bullet points

Remember, your resume is not a list of responsibilities or a job description. This is your chance to show why you're good at your job and what you accomplished.

Use the XYZ formula for your work experience bullet points. Here's how it works:

  • Use strong action verbs like Led, Built, or Optimized.
  • Follow up with numbers when possible to support your results. How much did performance improve? How much revenue did you drive?
  • Wrap it up by explaining the actions you took to achieve the result and how you made an impact.

This creates bullet points that read Achieved X, measured by Y, by doing Z.

Here are effective examples from mainframe developer resumes:

Work history example #1

Salesforce Developer

Northern Trust

  • Developed and worked on Building sites and portals with CSS styling involved.
  • Worked on various AppExchange products as per the needs of the organization.
  • Used SOQL & SOSL with consideration to Governor Limits to get the customer information from different accounts.
  • Created new database objects like Procedures, Functions, Indexes and Views using T-SQL in SQL Server 2008R2.
  • Implemented Service Cloud components like Service Console, Email to Case, Web to Case, Agent Scripting.

Work history example #2

Mainframe Developer

MCI

  • Participated in converting C-ISAM files to ORACLE tables and creating Stored Procedures in order to replace COBOL programs.
  • Modified the existing batch job using JCL to execute the new batch program.
  • Modified ISPF panels as per the user profiles.
  • Used new VSAM file to write the error weekly reports from batch programs.
  • Used JSF and JavaScript to develop the front end.

Work history example #3

Research And Development Internship

Arxan Technologies

  • Developed for the Windows platform using Visual C++ and for the Unix Platform using Python 2.7.
  • Worked with the QA team to validate coding practices such as Exception statements and Logging methods in Java.
  • Involved in Review of High Level and Detailed Design Document for DM Settings, DIGIT & Call History Screens.
  • Designed and implemented a dynamic image rendering web service, which is consumed by JavaScript.
  • Attended workshops on MATLAB/SIMULINK and Linux.

Work history example #4

Programmer

The PNC Financial Services Group

  • Used JavaScript, AJAX update panels where Client side scripting was necessary and also performed validation on the data.
  • Interacted with PNC's lines of businesses to design, build and install UNIX servers.
  • Managed the architecture and design of Applications using MQSeries on these platforms.
  • Migrated Java application that replaced mainframe to Apache-WebSphere-MSSQL server environment.
  • Supported Oracle database and requirements including DML executions.

Zippia’s AI can customize your resume for you.

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Add an education section to your resume

Employers are looking for a few things when looking at the Education section of your resume:
  • The highest degree you have achieved.
  • TWhere you attended school, and the dates (Although if you graduated some time ago, leave the date off to avoid ageism)
  • TField of study
  • TAny honors, relevant coursework, achievements, or pertinent activities

Here are some examples of good education entries for resumes:

Bachelor's Degree in computer science

New York University, New York, NY

2011 - 2014

Master's Degree in engineering

Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN

2018 - 2019

Highlight your mainframe developer certifications on your resume

Certifications are a great way to showcase special expertise or niche skills. Some jobs even require certifications to be hired.

Start simple. Include the full name of the certification. It's also good to mention the organization that issued the certification. Next, specify when you obtained the certification.

If you have any of these certifications, be sure to include them on your mainframe developer resume:

  1. IBM Certified Application Developer - DB2 9

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